Lee Kuan Yew, Interviews and selections by Graham Allison and Robert D Black Will with Ali Wyne
Key take aways
An political system that yield’s inferior economic performance will ultimately be discarded
leadership succession is the most part of any political system
contest between great powers in the 21st century will over economy and technology as opposed to military
The war for talent is the most critical competition in the 21st century
Three attributes vital in competition between nations and companies
entrepreneurship
people’s innovativeness
management
Core competencies for workers in the future
own control system
self supervision
responsibility to self upgrade
self discipline
Globalization cannot be reversed
the underlying driver is technology
better and cheaper transportation and communication will only accelerate its pace
On leadership
learn to ignore (quasi) experts and their pet theories
ignore how people will judge you, especially news
a popular government does not need to be popular all the time. Just make at the end of each term sufficient benefits have been realized from the unpopular decision
if no one is afraid of you, you are meaningless
On balancing society
when a society is too geared towards competition then group solidarity becomes weak
when a society has wealth that is too evenly distributed there is no incentive for the individual to make progress
no two individuals are equal
Elements needed for social progress
determined leadership
efficient administration
social discipline
On governing
find practical, not doctrinal, solutions to our problems of growth and development
get things done and leave others to extract principles from my successful solutions
if same solution is observed to work multiple times then it makes sense to spend time extracting the underlying principles (quite similar to George Soro’s practice of invest first and research later)
On China
China will reorganize, reeducate and train themselves to become a high tech society within 50-100 years. Main advantage is in economic influence
Key challenge for China over the next 30-50 years is the ability to attract talent
China’s official language is Chinese is a very arcane one. The world’s knowledge is all encoded in English. This presents a great barrier to China’s ability to attract and assimilate talent
On America
Its key advantage is its frontier society mindset.
An entrepreneurial culture of continuous self disruption
1980s Japan and Germany eclipsed America in manufacturing before it came roaring back
individualistic and nonconformist society which encourages more extreme and random behavior which results in more creativity and inventiveness
Ability to attract and assimilate talents from around the world
On India
Too much red tapes
On terrorism
Is less a concern of Muslim versus the west but more modern Muslims versus radical muslims
Related references
The Fatal Conceit: Errors of Socialism, Friedrich Hayek
